Jonathan W. Kanter

A Comparison of “Direct” Versus “Derived” Extinction of Avoidance Responding

To establish a series of derived relations between arbitrary stimuli, 20 subjects were exposed to nonarbitrary and arbitrary relational training and testing procedures. Subjects were then exposed to an avoidance conditioning procedure in which one member from each relation was established as a discriminative stimulus for avoidance and nonavoidance, respectively. Subjects who showed conditioned avoidance and nonavoidance also showed derived avoidance and nonawidance to other relation members. All subjects were then exposed to one of two extinction procedures, in which the original discriminative stimuli or other class members were employed, respectively. The majority of subjects exposed to both procedures also demonstrated spontaneous derived extinction of avoidance responding. These findings may have several important treatment implications.

Therapist Grief and Functional Analytic Psychotherapy: Strategic Self-Disclosure of Personal Loss

Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP), a behavioral approach that focuses on the development of genuine and meaningful therapeutic relationships including the strategic use of disclosure, provides a framework for therapist self-disclosure during times of personal loss. This article briefly outlines FAP and provides an example of FAP in practice following the death of the first author’s mother. Qualitative data from a client questionnaire on the impact of this disclosure are presented, which suggest that the disclosure was a positive experience for most but not all clients. The article concludes with clinical guidelines that can enhance therapeutic effectiveness whether or not therapists choose to disclose loss to their clients and general precautions for treading in this emotionally intense territory.

A Derived Relations Analysis of Approach-Avoidance Conflict: Implications for the Behavioral Analysis of Human Anxiety

The current article reports two experiments designed to examine the effects of creating competing approach and avoidance response functions for 2 stimuli that participate in the same derived stimulus relation. Experiment 1 involved establishing each of 2 distinct members (i.e., B1 and D1) of the same 1-node equivalence relation (A-B-C-D) as a discriminative stimulus for avoidance and approach responses, respectively. During a test phase, participants were presented with equivalence relation members that were of equal nodal distance from each of the discriminative stimuli (e.g., C1). Approach and avoidance responses during this probe phase were highly varied across participants but stable within participants. In general, approach and avoidance responses were observed with equal frequency during probe trials. Experiment 2 addressed several procedural artefacts, including the absence of response time data. Experiment 2 replicated the findings of Experiment 1. Elongated response latencies during probe trials in Experiment 2 support the idea that an approach avoidance conflict was generated using the current laboratory preparation. These findings have implications for our understanding of the etiology of anxiety disorders.